dafoosballking wrote:
I've been toying around with upgrading my 50d to a 7D for improved AF. Baseball season will be starting soon for my son, so I'll be doing a lot of shooting there. Anyway, money is extremely tight, so here are the two options I'm looking at. Which do you think would provide the best image quality? This is the classic cheaper body and better glass, but from what I've heard about the 18-135 STM, I may be gaining more by going from 50D to 7D than I'd be losing in the lens.

Yes, I know that neither of those lenses are near long enough for baseball. I'll also be looking at the Canon 70-300 or Tamron 70-300.

Personally I wouldn't go with either of those lenses for either of those bodies but look into stuff like:
Tamron 17-50 2.8 non-VC
Canon 15-85 IS

Anyway if baseball is the main goal yeah you want to focus on some longer lens first, trying to keep the price under some control:
tamron 70-300 VC
canon 300 f/4 non-IS

An upcoming 7D2 might have noticeably better AF than the 7D, although it might also cost a fair amount more than a 7D can be had for now.

For some action 7D did way better than 50D. Surfing for instance. OTOH for soccer, sometimes it did much better, but sometimes it didn't seem to do any better at all. OTOH my 5D3 always does at least as well as the best the 7D does for soccer and often much better (although for surfing it doesn't really seem to do any better at all).

For one shot, fast aperture lenses the 7D does a bit better than a 50D although worse than 5D2 in dim lighting and much worse than 5D3 in dim lighting and worse in good lighting.

dafoosballking wrote:
I've been toying around with upgrading my 50d to a 7D for improved AF. Baseball season will be starting soon for my son, so I'll be doing a lot of shooting there. Anyway, money is extremely tight, so here are the two options I'm looking at. Which do you think would provide the best image quality? This is the classic cheaper body and better glass, but from what I've heard about the 18-135 STM, I may be gaining more by going from 50D to 7D than I'd be losing in the lens.

Yes, I know that neither of those lenses are near long enough for baseball. I'll also be looking at the Canon 70-300 or Tamron 70-300.

Personally I wouldn't go with either of those lenses for either of those bodies but look into stuff like:
Tamron 17-50 2.8 non-VC
Canon 15-85 IS

Anyway if baseball is the main goal yeah you want to focus on some longer lens first, trying to keep the price under some control:
tamron 70-300 VC
canon 300 f/4 non-IS

An upcoming 7D2 might have noticeably better AF than the 7D, although it might also cost a fair amount more than a 7D can be had for now.